[813] This contempt of noble birth is common among the humanists. See the severe passages in Æn. Sylvius, Opera, pp. 84 (Hist. bohem. cap. 2) and 640. (Stories of Lucretia and Euryalus.)
[814] This is the case in the capital itself. See Bandello, parte ii. nov. 7; Joviani Pontani Antonius, where the decline of energy in the nobility is dated from the coming of the Aragonese dynasty.
[815] Throughout Italy it was universal that the owner of large landed property stood on an equality with the nobles. It is only flattery when J. A. Campanus adds to the statement of Pius II. (Commentarii, p. 1), that as a boy he had helped his poor parents in their rustic labours, the further assertion that he only did so for his amusement, and that this was the custom of the young nobles (Voigt, ii. 339).
[816] For an estimate of the nobility in North Italy, Bandello, with his repeated rebukes of mésalliances, is of importance (parte i. nov. 4, 26; parte iii. nov. 60). For the participation of the nobles in the games of the peasants, see above.
[817] The severe judgment of Macchiavelli, Discorsi, i. 55, refers only to those of the nobility who still retained feudal rights, and who were thoroughly idle and politically mischievous. Agrippa of Nettesheim, who owes his most remarkable ideas chiefly to his life in Italy, has a chapter on the nobility and princes (De Incert. et Vanit. Scient. cap, 80), the bitterness of which exceeds anything to be met with elsewhere, and is due to the social ferment then prevailing in the North. A passage at p. 213 is as follows: ‘Si ... nobilitatis primordia requiramus, comperiemus hanc nefaria perfidia et crudelitate partam, si ingressum spectemus, reperiemus hanc mercenaria militia et latrociniis auctam. Nobilitas revera nihil aliud est quam robusta improbitas atque dignitas non nisi scelere quaesita benedictio et hereditas pessimorom quorumcunque filiorum.’ In giving the history of the nobility he makes a passing reference to Italy ([p. 227]).
[818] Massuccio, nov. 19 (ed. Settembrini, Nap. 1874, p. 220). The first ed. of the novels appeared in 1476.
[819] Jacopo Pitti to Cosimo I., Archiv. Stor. iv. ii. p. 99. In North Italy the Spanish rule brought about the same results. Bandello, parte ii. nov. 40, dates from this period.
[820] When, in the fifteenth century, Vespasiano Fiorentino (pp. 518, 632) implies that the rich should not try to increase their inherited fortune, but should spend their whole annual income, this can only, in the mouth of a Florentine, refer to the great landowners.
[821] Franco Sacchetti, nov. 153. Comp. nov. 82 and 150.
[822] ‘Che la cavalleria è morta.’